Perennial newness

Yard trends start small, then get much bigger

Yard trends start small, then get much bigger

April 21, 2007|JUDY BRADFORD Tribune Correspondent

If you want your property to be the talk of the town this year, there are plenty of unusual trees, shrubs and other plants available to start the conversation. Let's start small. Growers are excited about the new colors in coneflowers. "The big buzz this year is that the purple coneflower isn't purple any more," said Greg Leyes, staff member of Ginger Valley in Granger. "It comes in many colors." The yellow, orange, gold, white, mauve or deep pink coneflowers are vigorous opportunists and will out-compete other plants. Other perennials making news include the "Stepables," miniature, very compacted versions of violets, thyme, stonecrop and creeper plants. The tiny ground cover that spreads quickly can be planted in unusual areas such as between rocks or step-stones where weeds would normally come up. There are dozens of varieties, without flowers or with flowers of all colors. "It's just so different from regular ground cover," Leyes said. "It's very low-maintenance, and people are even using it in their backyard waterfall displays." Varieties with bigger flowers or more abundant flowers include Armeria maritima "Rubrifolia," which has a deep pink pompom flower in late spring, and Mazus reptans, which sprouts tiny purple, yellow and white flowers. Brad Kutemeier, nursery manager for Foegley Landscape in South Bend, predicts that the Echinacea "Tiki Torch" will turn some heads this year. "It's a very unusual perennial, with a vibrant orange flower that is spicy-scented. It's perfect as a cut flower." Moving up in size, shrubs such as the "Double Knock Out Rose," Hydrangea paniculata "Limelight" and Caryopteris all bloom in June or July, and last until frost. "The shrub rose is disease-resistant and Japanese beetle-resistant, and the hydrangea has lime green flowers that can be used as hedgerows, as a specimen or in cut flowers," Kutemeier said. "The Caryopteris, or 'petite bleu,' has dark-green glossy foliage and deep purple flowers. It's never going to grow more than 24 inches by 24 inches, so it won't overgrow an area." If you like the shape of pompoms, you can have them growing up to 4 feet in your yard, in the way of a low-growing evergreen that has been grafted onto a stem. The evergreen part can be trimmed in the shape of a ball, or pompom, or left to grow more naturally. "They were originally in the formal gardens of the wealthy in Europe as long as a century ago," Ginger Valley's Greg Leyes said. "But now, anyone can afford them and enjoy them.'' In trees, the unusual seems to be coming through in the ornamentals. Heptacodium, or seven sons flower, is unique because it flowers in September. It has a creamy white flower that attracts butterflies. "Lavender Twist" redbud, another ornamental, grows differently than others in its species because it has a "weeping habit," according to Kutemeier, of Foegley Landscape. He also recommends trying the Bosque elm because it will grow well in this area and because growers have developed ways to keep elms from disease. "A lot of people have shied away from elms because the Dutch elm disease swept this area in the 1960s and '70s. But there are a lot of new varieties of elms now, like the Bosque, that won't get it.'' Want a fun tree? Try a rubber tree. "It's cool, with its dark green leaves, and you can tear a leaf apart and see the little strands of rubber. They have them, in mass planting at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago," Kutemeier said.